01.08.1996

Olympic anathema

The history of the Olympic games in the 20th century has been deeply enmeshed with the prevailing political and ideological conflicts of the day. The Olympic ideal reaches back to Greece and the dawn of western civilisation. Ideas and practices that emerged then - like beauty, health and organised competition - are still of great importance in the formation of contemporary consciousness. Since the fall of the Soviet Union the Olympic games has been ‘bought’ by America and used to promote its world hegemony - US companies dominate most events, and their athletes win most gold.

Despite this, there is a clear contradiction in Atlanta between the skill and commitment of the competitors - watch the great Michael Johnson - and a saturated media atmosphere, inducing passive acceptance and hysteria. Each event is being presented in a pre-packaged form like an edition of Gladiators. Rock anthems puncture every gap, and spectators are encouraged to create their own amusement by waving at themselves on the massive TV screens. Every moment seems afraid of reflection and full of a fevered banality, full of everything in fact that is anathema to sporting practice. Under these conditions athletes appear like gods, allowed special dispensation to enter history, in a way that no-one from the common herd should expect from their everyday lives.

The bomb in Atlanta last weekend dented this illusion of permanence (or innocence as The Independent put it), revealing the enemy within, a cancer that is more difficult to identify than a plague of communism. The unabomber, the TWA explosion and Atlanta provide terrible examples of how repression and exploitation create alienation and psychosis.

The Olympic games in Atlanta has proven that even the most carefully constructed illusions are unable to prevent the crisis at the heart of capitalism being revealed.

Phil Rudge